In yet another twist to Kerala’s infamous bar bribery scam, Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) R Sukesan, who carried out a court-ordered probe in the case, has filed a report which effectively exonerates former Finance Minister KM Mani, accused of taking Rs1-crore bribe from bar owners, by contradicting several findings mentioned in his own factual report prepared in August last.
Parts of SP Sukesan’s report on the further probe he held into the scam appeared in the media on Saturday just before the Special Vigilance Court in Thiruvananthapuram, which had ordered the investigation, took up the case. While posting the case to February 16, the court asked the Vigilance to produce Sukesan’s factual report and case diary.
In the factual report he had submitted to the Vigilance Director earlier, Sukesan had said there were sufficient evidences to prosecute Mani, chairman of the Kerala Congress(M), third biggest partner of the Congress-led ruling UDF. As per that report, there were circumstantial and scientific evidences to conclude that Mani had taken Rs25 lakh as bribe from bar owners.
Reports had come out later quoting Sukesan as speaking about the pressures exerted on him to prepare the report in Mani’s favour. Despite the findings of Sukesan, the final report of the Vigilance, prepared after taking legal advice from outside the State, had exonerated Mani by saying that there were no evidences against him and therefore the case could be closed.
However, the Special Vigilance judge who considered the report criticised the then Vigilance Director for his interference in the report and ordered further probe into the scam. Mani resigned from the Cabinet on November 10 after the High Court observed that it was up to him to decide whether he should continue as Minister in the context of the allegations against him.
In the new report, Sukesan said that Mani had neither demanded bribe from bar owners nor had he taken it. It also proposed closing the case in this context. The report said that it was found in the further probe that several of the several of the witness statements, which the official had taken as credible during the earlier investigation, had proven to be lies.
However, Sukesan’s report has not provided a clear explanation on the order of the court to look into the funds collected by the Kerala Bar Hotels’ Association (KBHA) for bribing those in the Government. He had also failed to record the statements of the KBHA office-bearers, something which could render the entire probe a meaningless exercise, according to legal experts.
It is alleged that the Vigilance in its urgency to exonerate Mani had deliberately avoided taking the statements of the association office-bearers. “The Vigilance had sent a notice asking me to appear for quizzing. In a written reply, I had informed it of my readiness and requested for four weeks’ time. Nobody approached me after that,” said association president D Rajkumar.
Sukesan’s new report has even gone to the extent of accusing whistleblower Biju Ramesh, himself a bar owner, of raising the allegation against Mani as an act of revenge out of his despair due to the losses he suffered because of closure of his bars as per the new liquor policy of the UDF Government.
Biju Ramesh, also working president of KBHA, on Saturday alleged that the report of the further probe was not written by Sukesan but it was prepared as per a script provided by the office of Congress’s Excise Minister and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s staunch loyalist, K Babu, who was facing the accusation of taking Rs10-crore bribe from owners.
Charging that Mani’s exoneration in the report was meant to protect other tainted members of the Cabinet, Biju Ramesh told newsmen, “The KBHA had collected Rs25 crore from its members. Of this, only Rs1 crore was given to Mani. The rest of the money had gone into the pockets of other Ministers.”